Imagine if every honest, hard worker never feared losing their job because they knew they could get another one.
Imagine if everyone understood the power of the Internet in the modern economy to allow them to create their own living through entrepreneurship.
Continue reading “My Mission”
Do you have a problem you’d like to solve?
Have you been looking high and low for a solution?
Would you like to hear me talk about your problem without doing anything to solve it other than asking for your money?
You are in luck!
I’d like to invite you to an incredible, life changing webinar. 90 minutes of your life that you’ll never get back.
During this webinar, you will learn….
…how excited I am about some meaningless credentials that don’t prove I can help you.
…the story of when I did something I’m really proud of that has nothing to do with the topic.
…just how many ways there are to talk around a topic without teaching you anything about it.
In this webinar, you are absolutely guaranteed to not learn one single solitary useful tip, tool, or technique on the topic.
But you will be kept on constant suspense, thinking I’m about to teach you something.
As an added Bonus, I will share with you a series of case studies. These case studies are carefully crafted to yield no information as to what my process might be, and you’ll be pretty sure I made them up using stock photos.
For example, meet Bob and Suzy Jones!
Before working with me they were sad, overweight, miserable, and broke. They were actually in the brink of divorce.
But after going through whatever my program is, they are happier. They have lost 193 pounds between them. They have more money than they ever dreamed of and were finally able to drive that RV. And their sex life is better than ever.
So, join me for this incredible webinar.
At the very end, I’ll offer you an amazing $397 offer that’s really $997, although no one in this history of mankind has paid $997 or even been offered that price.
In the $397 program, I will teach you between 0 and 3 actionable pieces of information, while mostly continuing to tell you how awesome I am, and setting you up for the next sale, which really is $997 (although I tell you it is normally $2500).
Register now for this powerful event that will unlock your new future!
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Have you noticed that the vast majority of people in the online business world are some variety of marketing coach or consultant? Do you know why that is?
There are some marketing coaches who just love marketing, and that’s what they’ve always done. They are awesome and provide a valuable service. But that is a small minority of marketing experts out there.
For many of them. if you take a look at their history, you’ll find that most of them used to be something else. An energy healer. A wellness coach. A parenting coach.
But then, in order for their business to be successful, they had to master all aspects of marketing. The learned to build funnels, write copy, run launches, manage social media and all the rest.
After spending months or years perfecting those skills, they discovered that selling those hard won skills was more lucrative than contributing to the world in the way that they had been called to.
And, just like that, the world has one more marketing coach.
Nothing against marketing coaches, but they don’t actually create anything in the world. They facilitate those who make a difference to reach the people they can make a difference for.
Or they would, except for the fact that too many people, once they spend years mastering marketing, give up on making that difference for selling their marketing knowledge.
This is a bad system. It drains the world of the knowledge and solutions we need.
But, up until now, it has been necessary. It doesn’t matter what you are an expert in. If you don’t also become an expert in marketing, no one will ever find you.
What if there were a platform that let experts be experts without becoming marketers.
That is the core of what The Great Discovery is.
The Great Discovery is a course platform where experts can share their courses to be promote by an affiliate network.
The core of the marketing strategy is a network marketing model, but unlike most network marketing companies, The Great Discovery’s affiliates aren’t selling the products of The Great Discovery. They are selling the courses created by the members.
Course creators get to leverage the power of network marketing to promote their content by simply creating great content.
They don’t have to get involved in the network marketing side at all, or they can choose to do so for additional revenue.
The key thing is that experts can focus on being experts!
The Great Discovery is still in a pre-launch phase.
That means that course creators who sign up before March 15th, 2024, will have the opportunity to pay just $628 one time to get unlimited lifetime course posting privileges. One course or a thousand courses, all included. No limits. No maintenance fees.
After the launch, it will shift to a more traditional monthly membership model.
If you would like to sign up, go to this link, and follow these steps:
At that point, you will be a course creator with lifetime course posting privileges.
If you would like to know more, there is a video on that web site, or you can email me at michael@guywhoknowsaguy.com to ask questions.
But I encourage you to act quickly because there is a great benefit in getting in on this early.
I would rather my daughter watch violent movies than the children’s cereal commercials I grew up with.
At least the violent movies are honest about their message.
Do you remember the classic 1980s and 1990s cereal commercials? Cute little cartoon characters with funny little taglines.
“Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids.”
“They’re always after me Lucky Charms.”
A good marketing or sales message solves a problem that the audience has. The easiest way to know what problem the audience has is to give them the problem. An effective commercial will create the world in which you need their product.
Think of the infomercial where a person opens their kitchen cabinet and an avalanche of storage containers falls on them. Then they offer you a much more efficient set of storage containers.
Never in my life have I opened a kitchen cabinet and had a thousand containers fall on me, but as I watch the infomercial, I am thinking that maybe I should get their storage solution because they’ve drawn me into a world where such problems happen.
Remember the Fruity Pebbles commercials of the 90s?
Fred and Barney are supposed to be best friends, yet the theme of every single ad is that Barney is trying to steal Fred’s cereal.
What’s the moral lesson of this story? If you have something you like enough, then you keep it all to yourself and never share.
How about Trix?
“Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids.”
“Silly person whose not like us, you don’t deserve the good things that we have.”
Only the people in the privileged class (kids) deserve the best things (Trix). The conceit of the ad is built on the same philosophical underpinnings as segregation laws.
Now you see why I’d be more comfortable with my daughter watching John Wick than an old cereal commercial.
At least the moral lesson of John Wick is about love and loyalty, not racism and selfishness.
World building is a powerful part of any sales or marketing message, and it is as dangerous as it is powerful.
Think of the events in the coaching industry, the ones built around giving you knowledge as a way to draw you in to make an offer.
There’s nothing wrong with this format, just like there’s nothing wrong with a TV commercial, but where it becomes problematic is when the world created is not entirely accurate.
If you’re attending an event like this, it is likely because you think the host knows something worth learning. So, if they teach you that rapid action is the key to success, and they are successful, you’ll internalize that idea that rapid action is good.
But what if they are only teaching this so that you’ll take rapid action to buy their program.
How about if they teach you that worrying about risk is overrated, and that taking massive risks with limited research is the path to riches?
But they are teaching this because they want you to think less of the risk of buying their program.
Maybe you don’t buy into their program, but you adjust your risk tolerance based on what this expert taught you and you mortgage your house to buy into some risky scheme and lose it all.
The advice wasn’t actually good advice, but was simply advice meant to compel you to a particular self-serving course of action.
After 25 years of studying sales, I can sniff out when someone has crafted their lesson to “teach” me what I need to know to make the decision they want me to make.
When this happens, I learn that I cannot trust a single word out of their mouth. If they are always selling and always closing, then when are they truly teaching?
If their lessons are built around pushing me to buy the next program, can I trust them to ever stop selling if I do buy in?
The way we do one thing is the way we do everything, right?
It’s okay to plant seeds in a sales process, but it’s not okay to turn your event into a jungle of manipulation.
The reason that people sell this way is that it works. They get you in for three days, live or online, draw you into their world, and after all that time, your reality is shifted enough that you’re ready to make decisions you wouldn’t other.
Unfortunately, if you don’t end up buying, then you leave with your reality warped, not shifted.
The better way is to approach the situation with the primary desire to serve, teach, and support.
The better way is to go into your event with the primary intention that every, single person who has trusted you with their time (and possibly money) will leave that event better for having met you whether or not they buy anything.
The better way is to share the best of what you know and who you are and trust that the right people will be attracted to work with you.
Recently, I saw this image on Facebook…
Being a know-it-all, I assumed I know the “right” answer.
I shared my thoughts, and invited the thoughts of others, and discovered that I did find the right answer for me, but that it’s dependent on where one is in life.
My initial thought was that the $1,000,000 was the right way to go. With the 50/50 shot had a 50% chance of getting nothing, and the money, effectively deployed, could create massive traveling opportunities and give me the chance to hang out with whoever I wanted.
On further reflection, I’ve found that each choice is correct at a certain place in life.
This is a great choice… if you have the knowledge and discipline to use it correctly.
With that kind of money, you have money to pay the bills for long enough to effectively deploy the rest of the cash to develop additional assets.
However, there are some people for whom this would be a terrible choice.
If your thought is “I want a million bucks because I could buy a house and a car and take a vacation,” then you shouldn’t choose this.
Why? Because you want to buy liabilities.
When the money is spent, you’ll find yourself worse off than before. That house will need maintenance and incur taxes. The car will cost taxes and require maintenance.
Likewise, if you already have over a million dollars in assets, then the million is just your next million.
A comment from a real estate investor friend made me realize the value of this choice. His worth is over a million dollars, so a million dollars would just be another million.
If he lost this bet, he’d still be in good shape, and if he won it, it would take him straight to the next level.
On the other hand, for someone who doesn’t have wealth, the downside risk doesn’t make sense.
If you know what to do with a million dollars, then you could leverage that into increasing wealth and it would give you the opportunity to hang out with whomever you want.
However, if you’re still in the place where you think about buying liabilities rather than assets with the money, spending time with the rich person would teach you how to use money to create wealth rather than to get things.
One person commented that they’d want to be paid to hang out with the rich person, which completely missed the point. People waste hundreds of thousands of dollars to get “education” at college, but they wouldn’t take the opportunity to get the massive opportunity of hanging out with the right people for free.
Heck, if you have the opportunity to carry the bags of a billionaire in exchange for hanging out with them and no pay, that’s still a fantastic deal.
At first I thought this one didn’t fit. I thought it was a wrong choice, but I recognized two scenarios in which this would make sense.
The first is for someone who is very young and immature. If you are not in a place where you would recognize or appreciate what the rich person could teach you, the travel gives you the opportunity to develop that maturity.
The other is someone who is just done. Life has beaten you down so much that you just want to go on vacation forever.
This is the one of the four options that does not directly lead to the next level of opportunity. However, it makes sense for someone who either isn’t prepared to receive and leverage the other three, or someone for whom this is the final step they’re seeking.
What do you think?
Do you agree with this reasoning?
What would you choose?
In Top Gun: Maverick (one of the best movies of the decade so far), there is a repeated motif of āItās not the plane. Itās the pilot.ā
It culminates in the climactic battle when Maverick and Rooster end up an old F-14 up against multiple state of the art, fifth generation enemy fighters.
Rooster inspires Maverick to do some of that pilot s#!t by saying, āItās not the plane. Itās the pilot.ā
Very exciting. Very dramatic. Very awesome!
So, maybe it is the pilot?
Iāve also been watching Drive to Survive lately on Netflix. Thatās the reality series about Formula One and the stories behind the races.
Many stories focus on the drivers and their skill and confidence and how they drive the car.
But they also talk about the importance of the car.
The best driver in the worst car cannot win.
The worst driver in the best car cannot win.
Only the best driver in the best car can win.
I recently heard someone say that the most important thing in finding success in a networking group is āself initiative.ā A good networker with the right mindset and techniques who takes the initiative to take the right action can find success in any networking group.
Technically this is true.
No matter what group you are in, if you take initiative to make connections, provide value, develop relationships, and get introductions, you will eventually be successful.
Anyone you meet can connect you to people who can connect you to people who can give you anything might possibly want.
Likewise, you could put Max Verstappen in my Honda Civic out on a Formula One racetrack, and heāll get all the way from the starting grid to the finish line.
But heāll get there a lot faster in an F1 race car.
If you donāt have self initiative, if you arenāt a go giver, if you donāt know how to ask for what you want, it doesnāt matter what room I put you in. You wonāt have success.
However, if you do have self initiative, if you are a go giver, if you do know how to ask for what you want, then you will do better in a great, well structured networking space full of the right people
Can you be successful in any networking group? Yes.
But with tens of thousands of options of spaces to network in, why would you spend your time in a group that does not have the people you need to meet?
Why would you spend your time in a group that isnāt structured well?
I created JV Connect because I want to put the best pilots in the best planes.
I want to see what happens when we put abundance minded, successful, effective people into a space that maximizes connections, facilitates relationships, and does everything possible to make awesome things happen.
And then, I want to create a space where you donāt have to be Pete āMaverickā Mitchell or Charles Leclerc to be successful because the event is structured to guide you to do the right things in the right way.
JV Connect is December 12th and 13th, and you can get into the cockpit here.
In the summer of 2015, I found myself in the Emergency Room. My sciatica was so bad that I could not walk and could barely move.
I went to chiropractors, and they could do nothing. A physical therapist was able to get it from debilitating to manageable, but certainly not able to fix it.
As it turned out a combination of short hamstrings and tendons combined with weak core strength (the result of too much sitting and not enough exercise) led to the symptoms.
The PT gave me a very effective set of exercises to get me from non-functional to functional.
And not a step beyond that.
Continue reading “Niching the Right Way to Serve the Right People”The secret to the quality of my emails is that Iām lazy.
You know those emails that you donāt like. The ones that are generic and salesy. The ones that identify a generic problem that you may or may not have, then they agitate that problem, then they make an amazing offer while delivering no value?
Those are super hard to write. Thereās a whole formula and process.
They are part of big fancy funnels with all kinds of technology, tracking, trigger links, and landing pages.
Want to know my process?
Continue reading “Why I’m so Transparent in my Emails”
A joint venture expert once told me that when you promote a partnerās launch you should expect 5-8% of your list to unsubscribe.
This expert also told me that every email you send will cause list attrition, so you should send email sparingly.
I was impressed by the fact that this expert could make so much money using email while understanding it so poorly.
Letās say you have an email list that you donāt mail to often, and this list came from colder sources like giveaways or freebie swaps.
You send an email to them announcing your latest webinar, and 2% of your list melts away.
You send another, and another 2% wanders off.
You promote a launch with a series of 8 emails, and 8% more exits stage right.
Holy moley! These guys are fleeing like rats from a sinking ship. You better send less emails to preserve your list.
Itās a reasonable conclusionā¦ except itās wrong.
As you may be aware, I mail my list daily. Out of over 2300 members, the last three emails had 6, 3, and 1 unsubscription respectively.
Thereās a few things going on under the numbers here.
The first is that thereās a group of people who get on your list who donāt want to be there. They signed up for a freebie, and thatās all they want. They are customers but they are one and one. They signed up for an event, but not for you.
These people are going to unsubscribe the first time they see an email. If you send daily emails, theyāll leave pretty quick, but if you send monthly or occasional emails, they might linger for many months because they donāt see your messages.
Thus, when you do send a few emails together, they will all unsubscribe at once making it seem like a mass exodus, when itās really just people who never wanted to be there in the first place.
Then, there is a group of people who were interested when they signed up, but they forgot who you are. By the time they get your rare message, they donāt remember signing up, so they feel like they were subscribed involuntarily, and they leave.
Additionally, if you reserve your email activity for the most āvaluableā uses then you may end up sending nothing but pitches, so these people leave because they signed up to get your knowledge and vibe, but what they receive is offers, mostly offers for products of strangers.
You will never avoid unsubscribes completely unless you never send emails.
However, the best way to make sure the right people stick around is to give them high value frequently.
Every email that you send should contain value.
Yes, I said āevery.ā
Value doesnāt have to mean not making an offer, but it does mean that every email reminds your audience of why they signed up in the first place.
It could be that you teach them something.
It could be your unique style of writing.
It could be a recommendation, invitation, or offer they will find interesting.
Sure, you could preserve your pristine list by never sending an email, but what good is that?
It doesnāt help you because if you ever do use it, your audience will flee.
It doesnāt help your audience because they signed up to get value, not to be stored in a museum.
As they say, a ship is safe in the harbor, but thatās not what ships are for.
If you want to preserve your audience, then serve your audience.
This was originally shared out through my highly valuable, very interesting, and not-monthly Resource Letter. If you’d like to receive content like this every day, and get my Power5 Networking Tips, just sign up below…
Recently, I discussed why I do not recommend monthly newsletters to avoid unsubscribes, and the first point I cited was that unsubscribes are not inherently bad.
There are two kinds of unsubs: authentic and inauthentic.
Continue reading “Good Unsubscribe, Bad Unsubscribe”
One of my agency clients recently asked me to write a monthly newsletter for one of their clients.
When I inquired as to why they wanted a monthly newsletter, I was told that the client wanted to minimize unsubscribes.
This makes a lot of sense as a motivationā¦
ā¦except that itās wrong.
This common but incorrect conclusion is built on three false underlying assumptionsā¦
Continue reading “The Monthly Newsletter Myth: Why Sending More Emails gets Less Unsubscribes”